An investor smiles before an electronic board showing stock information at a securities firm in Xiamen, East China's Fujian Province March 20, 2007. [newsphoto]

China's main stock index took a rollercoaster ride Wednesday before closing at a record high on the strength of financial shares.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index ended up 1.09 percent to 3,173.02, an all-time closing high. It has hit new highs for six consecutive sessions, extending this year's gains to 18.60 percent.

The index soared to a record high of 3, 179.40 within one hour of trading before making a nosedive to 3,052.07. But it gradually recovered the loss, driven by financial shares.

Huaxia Bank was the biggest gainer among bank shares with an increase of 7.82 percent, to 11.31 yuan. The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the country's biggest lender, rose 2.71 percent to 5.3 while Bank of China went up 2.9 percent to 5.33 yuan and China Merchant Bank surged 4.5 percent to 17.2 yuan.

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China Life, the country's top insurer, gained 2.66 percent to 35.14 yuan while its main rival, Ping An Insurance rose 1.46 percent to 46.58.

Two other closely monitored indexes experienced curves similar to that of Shanghai Composite Index. However, the Shenzhen Composite Index failed to regain all the lost ground by the close. It ended 0.68 percent lower to 835.74. The Shanghai and Shenzhen 300 Index of major companies rose 0.49 percent to 2,797.64.

Trading was extremely heavy, witnessing the creation of new records in volume in both bourses. In Shanghai, the turnover hit 151.12 billion yuan with 16.73 billion shares changing hands. In Shenzhen, 986 million shares were traded at a turnover of 70.09 billion yuan.

Declining shares far outnumbered the advancing ones by a ratio of 3 to 1 in the Shanghai Stock Exchange and by 4 to 1 in the Shenzhen bourse.

The intraday plummet was partly attributed to the investors' lingering memory of a major fall at the end of last month. On February 27, the Shanghai Composite Index nosedived nearly nine percent after reaching a then record high in the previous session, triggering a global sell-off.